Mt. Bross

We drove to Alma to start our adventure and found what we thought was the right road but it was closed for repair work. Fortunately our leader knew the name of one of the construction crew and that got us through even though it will be closed all day.

Paris Mill, which the Forest Service is trying to restore,was neat to see but we couldn't go inside due to toxic chemical residue. So as we were walking around the building I looked up on the mountainside that was looming over us and spotted some buildings high up on its seemingly sheer face. This one of the many old mines that fed into this mill. It is amazing how anyone could ever build something that high up or on that steep a slope!

We traveled up Dolly Varden Road and came to a small lake where we stopped to take in the view and walk around some. On up the road, which was getting pretty steep, we came to a good place for lunch under some Bristlecone Pine trees. Some of these trees were over 1000 years old. Those found in California of the same variety are over 4700 years old (before the pyramids were built).

13,850 Feet Above Sea Level

Now comes the exciting part of the day - climbing up Mt. Bross along the shelf road, zig-zagging back and forth, and running over some snow drifts left from last winter or possibly from last week! We were unable to reach the 14,000 ft summit because the snow got too deep and the road was pretty narrow and had very loose rocks. But the view from where we were was fabulous!

Going back down, we realize that we could not exit off the same road we came up on so we had to find another road that crossed over to one we knew was open. We got on one we thought was right and it was confirmed by a motorcyclist that we were on the right road, but then the motorcyclist turned and we didn't! With 7 Jeeps following each other, we got kind of messed up but eventually we found our way and was it lovely. The road was a single lane, tree covered route. It was covered with golden aspen, sometimes green, fragrant pine and sometimes both.